Play-off chasing Coventry City entertain promotion outsiders, Sunderland in a huge Championship clash.
Victory will see Coventry climb to fifth if West Brom fail to win elsewhere, whilst Sunderland will stay fourth regardless of the result.
Team News
Coventry could be without Ben Sheaf (unspecified) and Brandon Thomas-Asante (pelvis) after the pair missed the Sky Blues’ 2-0 midweek loss at Derby.
Jack Rudoni remains sidelined with a shoulder injury.
Sunderland could be without defender, Leo Hjelde due to a knock suffered in their 1-1 draw against Preston.
Jayden Danns (back), Enzo Le Fee, Dan Ballard (both hamstring), Ahmed Abdullahi (groin), Salis Abdul Samed (calf), Ian Poveda (unspecified), Aji Alese and Niall Huggins (both knee) remain sidelined.
When is Kick-Off?
Coventry host Sunderland at CBS Arena on Saturday 15 March at 3pm GMT, untelevised live in the UK.
Stat Attack
- Coventry are unbeaten in their last nine league meetings against Sunderland (W4, D5).
- Sunderland are winless in their last 11 league visits to Coventry (D5, L6).
- Coventry’s Joel Latibeaudiere has been yellow carded in his last two appearances against Sunderland.
- Bobby Thomas has scored in each of Coventry’s last three home matches (W3).
- Eliezer Mayenda has scored three goals in two of his last three appearances for Sunderland.
Prediction
Having stuttered to a surprise defeat at Derby, Coventry need to quickly regroup because they can’t afford to drop points given how close the play-off race is currently so this is a nice fixture given their current head-to-head form over Sunderland.
Regis Le Bris’ Black Cats though realistically need to win every game until end of season now if want any real opportunity to snatch automatic promotion, otherwise I do think that they’re now in a consolidating phase and building momentum for the play-offs after a scrappy draw against Preston.
Although both teams need the win for different but similar reasons, my instinct is that this could be another grinded-out draw for Sunderland whilst Coventry simply would take any point possible here heading into the run-in.
Prediction: Coventry 1-1 Sunderland
Result: Coventry 3-0 Sunderland